


Snapshots

by water_bby



Category: Red Cap - Fandom
Genre: Gen, Yuletide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-10
Updated: 2013-07-10
Packaged: 2017-12-18 07:46:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/877348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/water_bby/pseuds/water_bby





	Snapshots

**Author's Note:**

  * For [A.j.](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=A.j.).



October

It's a good picture of them all. No one is really surprised that Roper showed up in civvies rather than in uniform. But the rest of them are in dress, the officers and Sergeant Major Burns sitting on the bench, the sergeants and staff sergeants standing behind them. They even have Max, jumping at the camera rather than sitting quietly at Captain Howard's feet. They need this, this small reminder that they are all still here, after Burns was shot during the bank robbery. They are Hohenbruck SIB.

June, the previous year

Acting Sergeant Jo McDonagh had, of course, met Lieutenant Giles Vicary when they were both introduced to the rest of the SIB soon after they were posted to Hohenbruck, but she had not had much occasion to speak with him. But they ended up seeing a lot of each other during Max's several daily walks. Jo suspected that the longer-term members of the team enjoyed making the newcomers walk the dog, although most of them clearly liked the spaniel. (Jo did, too. Max was great company, even if he did try to use her bed for naps sometimes.)

Staff Sergeant Roper seemed to have taken an instant dislike to her, and Sergeant Major Burns seemed inclined to follow Roper's lead. So she found Mr. Vicary's quiet, polite presence while they were both watching Max find that moment's perfect bush made for a pleasant change from the charged atmosphere of the squad room. She wasn't sure what he got out of it, but he also seemed to need some time each day when he didn't have to worry if he was living up to unspoken expectations.

Giles Vicary appreciated those moments when he was not constantly aware that he didn't quite fit in -- an officer in a team made up of those he technically outranked but who were much more experienced than him. That McDonagh was also not quite a part of the group meant that someone was in the same place he was, even if for different reasons. He didn't want to risk the quiet companionship of those walks with Max, though, not even to find out if she knew why Roper so disliked her.

Maybe, one day, they each thought, they'd both feel as if they belonged.

August

Two months later, they had their chance in a big case, the murder of a German socialite married to a British officer. For Jo, that big chance had led to her posting in SIB ending rather abruptly -- Burns knocked her back to corporal and moved her back to general policing. But she couldn't keep her brain from working through the problem of Kirsten and Rachel and who had murdered the former. Thankfully, when she asked Mr. Vicary if she could review the security videos, he agreed.

For his part, Giles recognized that Jo McDonagh's instincts were good, much better than his, at any rate. When Sergeant Perkins tried to intimidate her into leaving, he pulled rank, something he wasn't in the habit of doing.

Neither one felt as if they belonged.

July, the following year

Jo had resigned herself to going back to finding Augusta XVIII when Mr. Vicary asked her to accompany him to the Naafi to ask questions (about wine gums, of all things) related to the big drugs case. She had, of course, said yes. And then Burns had put her back in SIB. This time, she told herself, would be different.

Giles Vicary was delighted to see McDonagh in the squad room again, and he was happy to notice that she and Roper and worked through the problem of the previous year.

Maybe now, they each thought, we'll belong.

early September

Running into Freddie Killian reminded Giles of all the ways his life had not gone as planned, but also that it could have been worse. So he wasn't in the Coldstream Guards, instead he was a detective. But being removed from a murder case with possible security implications simply because he had once gone to school with a possible suspect hurt. In the fifteen months he'd been at Hohenbruck, he'd worked on some silly cases -- though none quite as silly as having to track down Augusta XVIII in July. But this one was just annoying. So some soldiers had posed half-naked on a tank. Why did that require two of them to track them down?

But track them down they had to, so when the tattoo was noted, it just made the job seem easier.

"It seems rather, invasive, though, doesn't it? Forcing them to bare themselves so we can look for a tattoo?" He trusted Jo's investigative instincts, but this seemed a bit much.

"Oh, rather. We shouldn't have to do this at all, but since the Colonel insists, we must follow through. Now, whether the APA will want to prosecute...." Jo grinned.

late September

"Sir," Jo said, upon finding Giles already at his desk the following morning. While it was not unusual for her to be in so early, he rarely was.

"Good morning."

"I hear you interrupted Burns yesterday during briefing."

"I suspect he thinks it's your influence. After all, it was to pass on information you had inquired about." He smiled. "Although I think I will take responsibility for pointing out that one of the addresses was in our search area."

She grinned back at him.

October

Accompanying Sergeant Major Burns to the bank to ask about a few numbers had not sounded like a particularly dangerous way to spend the morning, but it had turned out to be the most dangerous morning of Giles Vicary's life. And now his hands were covered in Burns's blood, trying desperately to stem the tide from the gun shot wound. When the paramedics arrived, he was relieved to see that one of them was Jo. If she was here, then so was the rest of the team. Their chances, the hostages' chances, had gotten better. So when Jo talked the final bank robber into taking her as a hostage, he let himself concentrate on Burns, trusting that the others would take care of her.

Later in the month, after Burns, walking with the aid of crutches, returned to work, Captain Howard declared that they needed a group photograph. So he put on his dress uniform, smiled at the other members of SIB, and stood waiting for Roper to show up. This was his team, who would argue with one another, and even sometimes steal the credit for one another's idea, but who would also risk their lives for one another and for the people they protected.

It's a good picture.


End file.
